The Art Of Discussion by Wyatt James;

Author:Wyatt, James;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clink Street Publishing
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Too much information tends to have an almost paralysing impact, something which is beautifully explained in the wonderful book, A Road Less Travelled. In one section, M. Scott Peck compares two military leaders, one of whom cares little about his troops, other than their capability as soldiers, while the other shows great empathy, knowing them as people and knowing all about their families. In effect, the first leader has simplified his decision-making. It is likely he will be able to benefit from the detachment and focus purely on the military goals without the fear of consequence from sending his troops into battle. However, he therefore bears the risk of being a bit gung-ho as he does not consider the human risk associated with the decisions he is taking. On the other hand, the second leader may know too much, placing excessive focus on the human side and therefore worrying too much about the consequences of any decision. This creates a grave risk that he is prevented from taking the correct military decision because he cares too much about the people involved.

Whilst we can probably all understand the desire to keep things simple, it is clear that a truly powerful general would be able to gain a clear understanding of the people in their charge and yet still be bold enough to send their troops into battle when justified by the military goals and when the balance of risk was correct. And even if most of us will never be in a such a life-or-death situation, the same principle applies to many of the decisions we take. True power in decision-making and therefore true power in discussion comes from knowing the detail so that we fully understand the impact of our decision, whilst still being able to impartially balance the conflicting views and make the right choice. This means understanding the complexity yet simplifying it into a manageable framework of information from which we can make a coherent decision. This is easy to say but is incredibly challenging to accomplish, which is why the desire to avoid complicating the arguments with other people’s views is so very appealing!

But our failure to consider the complex patchwork of facts is not purely driven by our desire to keep things simple. Our inability to truly engage with and understand other people’s perspectives is another significant factor. This is partly driven by our blinkers to people’s individual differences that we discussed earlier in the chapter, and our unconscious bias that others will or should think or feel the same. But even when we successfully manage to peel back those blinkers, our lack of empathy also gets in the way! As discussed in Chapter 2, it is incredibly rare for us take our listening skills to the level where we are truly feeling what the other person is saying; and when we feel our argument, but don’t feel theirs, it is no surprise that our argument seems so much more powerful. This can lead our biased

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